I am a Tax Partner in WithumSmith+Brown’s National Tax Service Group and the founding father of the firm's Aspen, Colorado office. I am a CPA licensed in Colorado and New Jersey, and hold a Masters in Taxation from the University of Denver. My specialty is corporate and partnership taxation, with an emphasis on complex mergers and acquisitions structuring. In the past year, I co-authored CCH's "CCH Expert Treatise Library: Corporations Filing Consolidated Returns," was awarded the Tax Adviser's "Best Article Award" for a piece titled "S Corporation Shareholder Compensation: How Much is Enough?" and was named to the CPA Practice Advisor's "40 Under 40."

In my free time, I enjoy driving around in a van with my dog Maci, solving mysteries. I have been known to finish the New York Times Sunday crossword puzzle in less than 7 minutes, only to go back and do it again using only synonyms. I invented wool, but am so modest I allow sheep to take the credit. Dabbling in the culinary arts, I have won every Chili Cook-Off I ever entered, and several I haven’t. Lastly, and perhaps most notably, I once sang the national anthem at a World Series baseball game, though I was not in the vicinity of the microphone at the time.

IRS Announces Start To Tax Filing Season, Exciting Absolutely No One

As you’ve probably heard, the economy contracted in the fourth quarter of 2012, with GDP shrinking for the first time since the first quarter of 2009. While this news is certainly disconcerting, according to the economics eggheads it is not an indicator of a recession; rather, the dip in GDP can be largely attributed to two factors that should reverse in 2013: reduced defense spending and liquidated inventories.

Military spending contracted at a 22% annual rate between October and December, presumably because Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s heart grew ten sizes with the holiday spirit, convincing him that he didn’t need all of those pricey Kill-Bot 2000s and poisonous flying monkeys in his arsenal after all. That won’t last, of course, and the government will be back to spending billions on a missile defense shield held in place by pixies before you know it.

In the private sector, businesses sold off their products during Q4 but declined to replace those items, which while a drain on the economy, spared tens of thousands of auditors from dreadfully monotonous year-end inventory counts.

That’s right. Starting today, the vast majority of taxpayers can file their returns, as the IRS has modified the bulk of the forms necessary to comply with the fiscal cliff legislation, which wasn’t finalized until January 2nd. Keep in mind, however, that if you’re claiming an education credit, you’re on hold until mid-February, and if you plan on claiming any depreciation deductions, energy credits or business credits you won’t be cleared to file until late February or early March.

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